Considerable expense is involved in the construction of a machine room for an elevator. The expense includes the cost of constructing the machine room, the structure required to support the weight of the machine room and elevator equipment, and the cost of shading adjacent properties from sunlight (e.g., sunshine laws in Japan and elsewhere).
Elevator systems have been developed to avoid the expense of a machine room. These elevator systems are difficult to install and maintain because hoistway access can be difficult or dangerous especially to maintenance people while working in the hoistway on machinery that controls elevator motion if the machinery, such as the drive motor, is located in a space between the elevator car and a sidewall of the hoistway. Furthermore, elevator systems typically require additional hoistway space to accommodate machinery disposed between the car and sidewall of the hoistway.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an elevator system without a machine room which avoids the above-mentioned drawbacks associated with prior elevator systems.